Turkey blames Syria over Reyhanli bombings

Nine Turks arrested but foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu says Assad regime was behind blasts in which 46 people died

The site of an explosion in Reyhanli: Syria has denied involvement and claimed Turkey was to blame for turning its border into a focus for international terrorists. Photograph: ZUMA / Rex Features/Zuma/Rex Features

Turkey's foreign minister has blamed Syria for a double car bombing that killed 46 people in a border town, as the US and the UK pledged to stand behind their Nato ally in one of the most serious cross-border disputes since the Syrian conflict began.

Turkish police arrested nine people in connection with the attacks, which occurred within 15 minutes of each other on Saturday in Reyhanli – a base for Syrian refugees fleeing the conflict and a rallying point for rebels before they cross the border.

All nine were Turkish citizens, but the foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, suggested those responsible for the bombings were also involved in an alleged massacre in the Syrian coastal town of Banyias last weekend.

"The attack has nothing to do with the Syrian refugees in Turkey. It's got everything to do with the Syrian regime," he said in a TV interview.

Davutoglu added: "We should be careful against ethnic provocations in Turkey and Lebanon after the Banyias massacre."

Syria denied involvement and claimed Turkey was to blame for turning its border into focus for international terrorists. Syria's state media quoted the information minister, Omran Zubi, as saying: "No one has the right in Turkey to issue arbitrary accusations against Syria concerning the bombings which rocked Turkey yesterday as Syria has not and will not conduct such behaviour."

The US, UK and Nato all pointedly pledged to support Turkey in the dispute.

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, said: "The United States condemns [the] car bombings and we stand with our ally, Turkey. This awful news strikes an especially personal note for all of us given how closely we work in partnership with Turkey."

The car bombing is the third time the Syrian conflict has spilled over the border into Turkey – one of the staunchest allies of the Syrian opposition movement. It comes ahead of a meeting later this week between Barack Obama and the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Meanwhile, rebels in southern Syria have freed four Filipino UN peacekeepers they said they were holding for their own safety after clashes last week with Syrian government forces put them in danger.

A spokesman for the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade said the four were handed over on Sunday morning at a border checkpoint where the Jordanian and Israeli borders join with the Golan Heights.

The same rebel brigade freed 21 Filipino peacekeepers in March after holding them for three days.